under-whistle

Updated: July 18, 2026

Dick Dewy faced about and continued his tune in an under-whistle, implying that the business of his mouth could not be checked at a moment's notice by the placid emotion of friendship. Having come more into the open he could now be seen rising against the sky, his profile appearing on the light background like the portrait of a gentleman in black cardboard.

Thomas Hardy - Under the Greenwood Tree, or, the Mellstock quire; a rural painting of the Dutch school